JAMES ANDERSON McKEE, MD

Sacramento County

Biographies

JAMES ANDERSON McKEE, M. D.

JAMES ANDERSON McKEE, M.D. Since 1899 James Anderson McKee has been a residient of Sacramento, where he has built up an extensive practice in his profession of medicine and surgery. He is a native of Pennsylvania, born June 6, 1854, a son of Robert and Susan (Roberts) McKee, his parents having located on a farm near Meadville, Crawford county. His boyhood years were passed in this section, receiving practical training along agricultural lines, while at the same time he attended the district school in pursuit of an education. In 1875 he came to California and began reading medicine with Dr. C. S. Bradford, of Elk Grove, with whom he remained about three years. He took a course of lectures in the California Medical College, from which institution he was graduated in 1880, and shortly afterward located in San Francisco, where he began the practice of his profession; a year later he removed to Colusa county, where he built up a lucrative practice during the three years of his residence there. He then located in Elk Grove where he remained fifteen years. In the meantime, in 1886, he graduated from Rush Medical College, of Chicago, and in 1897 spent some months in Philadelphia and New York City engaged in hospital work. He came to Sacramento in 1899 and has continued in the practice of his profession, his office, consisting of reception room and private office, modern in all appointments, being located in the Elks Building on J street. He has won recognition in his work as physician and surgeon and holds a high place among the professional men of the city, being a recognized authority in the Sacramento Medical Society, of which he is a member, also belonging to the State Medical Society and American Medical Association. In political lines Dr. McKee has also acquired prominence, and as a candidate on the Republican ticket has been elected to various offices. In 1904 he was nominated by this party as candidate for state senate and was elected from the seventh senatorial district by a majority of twenty-six hundred votes. While in the senate he introduced thirty-three bills of his own, many of which became laws. During this time he also served on several important committees, among them the committee on public buildings and grounds, of which body he was chairman; agricultural and dairy committee; reclamation of drainage, swamp and overflow lands; education; hospitals and asylums; library; prison and reformatory, and public health and quarantine.

Through his efforts to re-establish the new State Fair he secured the appropriation for that purpose and an appropriation of $352,000 for remodeling and improving the state capital building. He has secured the greatest amount of appropriations for Sacramento county ever known in the history of the state and in witness thereof the board of trustees of Sacramento City passed resolutions expressing their appreciation of the senator.

January 3, 1884, Dr. McKee was united in marriage with Barbara Nau, a native of Iowa, and they are now the parents of three children: Charles B., a medical student; John R., in the high school; and James Elmer, at home. In fraternal relations Dr. McKee is a Mason, being a member of Elk Grove Lodge, F. & A. M.; Sacramento Chapter, No. 3, R. A. M.; Sacramento Commandery, No. 2, K. T.; and Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco. He is also identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a member of the Encampment of the latter. He is active in medical circles and is past president of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement, and is identified as a member with state, county and national associations.

Transcribed 11-8-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: “History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, California” by J. M. Guinn. Page 1548. Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1906.